How The Experimentation Group and Shallot Games increased Coffee Golf’s RPI by 75%

• Coffee Golf had a solid retention rate and almost entirely organic installs but monetisation and paid user acquisition were weak
• Experimenting with techniques led to game design changes that boosted RPI from 40 to 70 cents a 75% increase

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Last year, games industry veterans David Nelson, Phillip Black, and Tom Storr came together to create The Experimentation group, which offers consultancy services for free to those in the games industry. 

With experience at the likes of King and Dice, the trio has been helping other studios and game developers grow their titles. In this guest post, Tom Storr shares a recent case study with us where Shallot Games was able to turn around its monetisation and UA challenges with the aid of The Experimentation Group. Here’s how they did it. 

Shallot Games initially got in touch with us because they were stuck.

Their game, Coffee Golf, had a solid retention rate (47% on D1, 29% on D7, and 13% on D30) and almost entirely organic installs. However, monetisation and paid user acquisition (UA) were weak, limiting their ability to scale. By combining gaming expertise with experimentation techniques, we developed an innovative and effective solution.

Driving RPI

Our first focus was on monetisation. The game’s core mode, “daily classic,” allowed players to compare their scores each day.

The most engaged players ground hard to maintain a streak of top 1% finishes. A one-time purchase for unlimited replays and the option to watch ads for individual replays drove the majority of revenue. However, the problem with one-time purchases is that they don’t scale.

Recognising players’ appetite for gameplay and the casual style of the game, we introduced a saga-style progression called “tour mode.” This radically changed the game loop, allowing players to play as much as they wanted, governed by a simple economy of par scores (a score limit per course), lives (gifted or bought, and lost when a player exceeds par on a course), and gems (earned through play or purchased).

It also provided a framework of proven monetisation mechanics. In simple, early versions, players progressed deeply into the game, prompting us to layer features on top which were designed to drive spend.

We implemented “tour streak” and “daily tour challenge,” which offered rewards for consecutive achievements. For example, in tour streak, players earned a “mulligan” by passing three consecutive courses on their first attempt.

A mulligan is valuable because it allows players to retake any shot for free. Players lose their Mulligan if they fail a level, which increases the cost of failure and, therefore, encourages spending. The daily tour challenge further leveraged this concept.

Next, we optimised the difficulty curve, ensuring that courses were challenging enough to drive spend without frustrating players. Finally, we rolled out interstitial ads for non-paying players, which, surprisingly, increased both monetisation and retention. These combined game design changes boosted RPI from 40 to 70 cents – a healthy 75% increase. We were clearly on the right path.

Optimising UA

With RPI growing, the next step was building a paid user acquisition capability. Shallot integrated Singular to track and optimise their UA efforts, running campaigns across Facebook and Unity Ads.

After testing a variety of creatives, simple gameplay ads proved most effective, bringing CPIs down to around 40 cents in the U.S. Given the boosted RPI, Shallot was now in a position to begin scaling, confident that there was plenty of room for further improvement.

The bottom line

By combining gaming expertise with experimentation techniques, The Experimentation Group and Shallot Games successfully turned Coffee Golf around. The game has evolved from a solid performer to a title that can fuel the next phase of Shallot’s growth.

                                                                       Edited by Paige Cook